I walked into breakfast the next morning, filled a plate with eggs and biscuits, and then walked through the throngs of happy people and smiling children. I guessed this place wasn’t that bad, as far as getting stuck, that was.
There was an empty table or one with Ruck, Burn, and Ryker. I walked past the empty one. I sat across from Ryker and Burn and beside Ruck. They continued their conversation about how Micky needed to add more salt to the eggs or something.
Eggs. That was what they were talking about? There was a war coming for these people and they walked around this place smiling. Worst part of it, if I didn’t do something, didn’t figure out how to forge the strongest ward ever made, I’d be the first domino in the row that led to their lives crashing. If I fell, this whole place might fall behind me. Either that or it would be a mass murder, unlike anything seen for decades.
Then what? They’d get so scared they’d try and kill Ryker, and maybe they’d succeed this time.
Ryker said he’d help me find the Debt Collector, would figure out a way to unload the debt I carried. But then what? Could I really leave all these people, Ruck and my crew?
This wasn’t the life I’d imagined for myself, or one I would’ve ever chosen. But it was my life. I was stuck with them and they were stuck with me, which made them mine, the whole damn smiling lot of them.
Ryker was listening to Burn, or pretending to, but I knew he had an eye on me, waiting to see if I was going to step up or fall. He’d said to me during an especially brutal practice one day, “I’m ruthless so that they don’t have to be.”
It had taken me a while to understand, but I got it now. We were fighting for the same thing in our own ways.
Maybe I’d never totally blend with these people and their smiling ways, but I could be happy here. It was a different type of happiness. It was the kind you got from knowing that the people you cared for were safe and sleeping in their beds because you were manning the wall. Ryker and I were alike in that way. We made the hard choices.
I leaned forward, silently making myself part of the group. It didn’t go unnoticed as their eyes settled on me.
Maybe it hadn’t been as secretive a debate as I’d thought.
I looked at the faces around me and knew I didn’t care if the worm had finally thought I should leave. I was staying. “So, let’s talk defenses. We might have a lot of bad people heading this way.”
Burn smiled and Ruck bumped me with his shoulder.
Ryker didn’t say anything, and then his eyes met mine. His magic swelled and surrounded me, and it felt good.